Elmo and a Rock

How a childhood puppet reveals the complication of adult sexuality

:: Audio version located at the end of the article for your convenience ::

Last year in 2022, an older video from Sesame Street, particularly one of the favorite characters Elmo, went viral. The video went viral because Elmo was "losing his shit" with Zoe due to her fascination with her pet rock "Rocco." 

There were many clips of Elmo visibly frustrated with Zoe and her pet rock, but the funniest clip was when Gabby gave an oatmeal raisin cookie, Elmo's favorite, to Rocco. From the New York Times, we read the following: 

"Elmo wants the oatmeal raisin cookie, which is on a counter. Next to the cookie is a rock.

But as Elmo reaches for it, his furry red hand is stopped by an orange one that belongs to Zoe, another "Sesame Street" character, who is concerned for the rock, a pet named Rocco.

"No, no, no — wait, Elmo," Zoe says. "Rocco says that he wants the oatmeal raisin cookie."

And it is at this point that Elmo — a children's character usually associated with innocence, lighthearted fun and playfulness — reaches his breaking point.

"Rocco?" Elmo says, sounding astonished. "Rocco's a rock, Zoe! Rocco won't know the difference!"

And when Zoe insists that Rocco will, indeed, know the difference, Elmo goes from incredulous to angry.

"How?" Elmo retorts. "How is Rocco going to eat that cookie, Zoe? Tell Elmo. Rocco doesn't even have a mouth. Rocco's just a rock! Rocco's not alive!""

This clip is from 2004, and on the one hand, this clip of sensible frustration could be predictive programming to show how individuals would feel in the future.

The New York Times attempts to propagandize and spin the 2022 article by saying Elmo's frustration is how the vaccinated people felt during the height of the pandemic, but now since a plethora of studies and new information have come out to show that there was some credit to the unvaccinated, it almost appears that it's the unvaccinated who may be feeling the frustration as the camp of the vaccinated tries to avoid addressing specific topics. 

So there are many ways we can interpret Elmo and Rocco's feud, but I think one way that this feud needs to be examined is from the perspective of the topic of gender fluidity. In this article, we'll discuss how Elmo's frustration goes deeper than just oatmeal cookies; instead, it provides insight into the matter we see taking place in our society. 

Disclaimer: This is not a hateful piece, as hatred is evil and should not be tolerated. This article is to address legitimate concerns that many are encountering. 

Within the article, we will address the following: 

• How Kevin Samuels's Role Model, Jordan Peterson, rose to fame and what that means regarding “What is a Woman?”

• Gabrielle Union's speech on Civil and Transgender rights

• What might be behind this agenda? 

Because everyone knows there's an agenda here, this sure will be an exciting read. So please sit back, and relax because we're going for a ride. 

Toxic Masculinity

The late Kevin Samuels gained a reputation online for "telling it as it is." His messages called out women for their unrealistic expectations to attain a “high-value man.” The theme behind being a high-value man resonated with a lot of popularity because, despite his harsh delivery, there was a lot of truth to his message. And the thing about the truth is you can't argue with it. So he gained a lot of followers.

However, if you listen to Samuels, he always mentions, "don't judge me by these 30-second clips; judge me by the intent of my work done for my two-hour podcast." I checked out one of his podcasts and was very impressed with his delivery, tone, and message. I was very impressed for an hour and 30mins, and then you have the 30min clips for what he's famous for.

I bring this up because the majority know Samuels for his highlights rather than for the content of his work. For those who actually listened to his work, he introduces individuals to Jordan Peterson. Samuels and Peterson have a lot of similarities, and Samuels holds Peterson in very high regard. Everyone knows Kevin Samuels, but no one knows Jordan Peterson. So who is Jordan Peterson?

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist who also gained internet fandom for delivering a harsh message for individuals to accept. Like Samuels, there's a lot of truth to his message - whether you like it or not. Both individuals looked to level set expectations and ground individuals from living in a fantasy, "i.e., being morbidly obese, yet wanting an individual with a six-pack."

Peterson's rise to fame was from being a college professor, and one of his lectures was released on the internet. In the speech, you can see Peterson defending his stance on why one cannot force someone to "use a different pronoun" because he states that you are now engaging in a language war, ultimately attacking freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is a basic necessity for individuals to be free. When you start regulating what someone can and cannot say, you're opening a whole can of worms that lead us down this totalitarian path.

The problem is that these individuals, Peterson and Samuels, were delivering truth perceived as harsh and, in some ways, hateful. Kevin Samuels, Jordan Peterson, and others were now grouped together as toxic masculinity. But what's missing from this simple conversation is the simple question about biological sex? If we're changing the definition of pronouns, don't we need to understand what a biological male or female is? And that's where Matt Walsh comes in with his documentary. He states that we need to really understand the core of the matter before we start going down this rabbit hole of changing pronouns and whatnot.

Walsh's documentary is based on the question: if we have biological sexes known as male and female, and the pronouns are he and she since we can never change the biological sex you were born, then those are the pronouns that ones can be called. Sure, you can perform surgery, but ultimately, you cannot change your biological sex as that is what you were born with. The counterargument is, "yes, we have these biological sexes, but gender is different."

And what we really see here is a societal change on the topic of gender and, is the concept of gender fluid? While one can argue this question, when looking closer into this topic, a different perspective begins to emerge.

Purposeful Confusion

Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade recently received an award from the NAACP based on “courage with their son's transition.” This acknowledgment sheds light on an important aspect to notice: we're seeing transgender rights being categorized as civil rights (not human; there is a distinction) when we have yet to discuss if it's even possible to change one gender. We're moving forward on this path and have yet to confirm that fact. And when we look closer into this matter, we see an agenda here at play.

To read the rest of the article where we finish discussing who is funding these movements, and why they target children, please become a paid member.